Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Friday Afternoon Papers 105–111
time within a trial before another tone was generated was 1 sec. Two
additional subjects replicated the early stages of learning. The data
provide a baseline for the learning and relearning of musical tone
identification/discrimination. It appears that despite the aging process
(the subject got older), the ability to reach maximum levels of accuracy
did not decrease.
Visual Short-Term Memory
Grand Ballroom Centre, Friday Afternoon, 3:50–5:30
Chaired by Pierre Jolicœur, Université de Montréal
3:50–4:05 (105)
Tracking the Involvement of Visual Short-Term Memory Using
Human Electrophysiology. PIERRE JOLICŒUR, BENOIT BRISSON,
NICOLAS ROBITAILLE, ÉMILIE LEBLANC, ROSALIE PERRON,
& DAVID PRIME, Université de Montréal—Elegant work by Vogel
and Machizawa (2004) suggests that maintaining information selected
for storage in visual short-term memory (VSTM) causes a sustained
posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN) in event-related potentials,
reflecting neural activity associated with memory retention. We observed
similar SPCNs in ERPs from several experiments designed to
measure the N2pc (another interesting ERP strongly correlated with
visual spatial selective attention). In this paper, we review several spatial
selective attention experiments in which we observed both N2pc
and SPCN ERPs. We also present new experiments designed to dissociate
the N2pc from the SPCN and to use the SPCN as an ongoing
measure of VSTM involvement in visual cognition.
4:10–4:25 (106)
Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Supporting Visual Short-Term
Memory for Objects. YAODA XU & MARVIN M. CHUN, Yale University—There
is growing debate contesting whether visual shortterm
memory (VSTM) capacity is variable or limited to a fixed number
of objects. Using fMRI, we show that while activations in the
superior intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the lateral occipital complex
(LOC) track the number of objects held in VSTM as object feature
complexity vary, those in the inferior IPS increase with set size and
plateau at set size 4 regardless of object feature complexity. Moreover,
while inferior IPS representations are spatial in nature, those of the
superior IPS and the LOC are not. These results suggest a two-stage
model of VSTM whereby a fixed number of objects are first selected
via their locations by the inferior IPS, and then a variable number of
objects, depending on visual complexity, are subsequently retained in
VSTM by the superior IPS and the LOC. VSTM capacity is, therefore,
determined both by a fixed number of objects and by object complexity.
4:30–4:45 (107)
Working Memory Capacity and Control of Visual Search. BRAD-
LEY J. POOLE & MICHAEL J. KANE, University of North Carolina,
Greensboro (read by Michael J. Kane)—The executive attention theory
of working memory (WM) capacity proposes that WM span tasks
predict individual differences in fluid cognitive abilities because span
reflects a domain-general attention control ability (Engle & Kane,
2004). Supportive evidence comes from findings that individual differences
in WM capacity predict performance on tasks requiring conscious
control of habitual responses and visual attention. However, we
have previously reported that WM capacity is not related to prototypical
visual search performance, even in tasks eliciting substantial RT
slopes. Because attention deployment in typical search tasks is not volitional
(Wolfe et al., 2000), here, we designed two visual search tasks
to increase demands on executive control—one requiring the volitional
movement of attention around a search display and one requiring
the restriction of search to discontiguous locations amid distractors.
Results indicate that WM capacity predicts the ability to
discontiguously focus visual attention, especially when focus must be
reconfigured across successive trials.
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4:50–5:05 (108)
Errors in Visuospatial Working Memory. CESARE CORNOLDI &
ROSSANA DE BENI, University of Padua, & NICOLA MAM-
MARELLA, University of Chieti—It is common knowledge that elderly
people have difficulty in performing working memory tasks, including
visuospatial working memory (VSWM) ones. Unfortunately,
the generality and the characteristics of this difficulty have not yet
been deeply examined. A series of experiments investigated the active
component of VSWM in young and elderly people. Participants were
shown sequences of matrices on which three positions were pointed
at; their task was to process all the positions and then to indicate only
the final positions of each sequence. Results showed that the success
in active VSWM tasks depends—at least partially—on difficulties in
discriminating between items having a different status and, in particular,
in avoiding intrusions (i.e., avoiding the recall of information already
activated).
5:10–5:25 (109)
Similarity and Interference in Visual Working Memory. STEVEN J.
LUCK, PO-HAN LIN, & ANDREW HOLLINGWORTH, University
of Iowa—Similarity leads to interference between representations in
long-term memory and in verbal working memory. Does it also lead
to interference between representations in visual working memory?
To answer this question, we conducted a color change detection experiment
in which the items in a given sample display were either similar
to or different from each other in hue. Accuracy was not impaired
when the colors were similar to each other; instead, accuracy was improved.
Superior accuracy was also observed for similar items when
the to-be-remembered items were presented sequentially, even when
the first item in the sequence was tested. The increased accuracy for
similar items does not, therefore, reflect a more accurate initial encoding
but, instead, reflects differences in the maintenance or comparison
processes. Thus, similarity between concurrent representations
in visual working memory influences performance, but the effect
is the opposite of the interference effects observed with other forms
of memory.
Prospective Memory
Grand Ballroom East, Friday Afternoon, 4:10–5:30
Chaired by Bob Uttl, University of Tamagawa
4:10–4:25 (110)
Quo Vadis, Prospective Memory? BOB UTTL, University of Tamagawa—Prospective
memory proper (ProMP) brings back to awareness
previously formed plans at the right place and time; ProMP is distinct
from other subdomains of prospective memory (ProM), such as vigilance/
monitoring. A quantitative review of over 200 age contrasts from published
studies revealed that although both ProMP and vigilance show
substantial age declines, the declines in ProMP are larger than those
in vigilance/monitoring and in retrospective memory. Strikingly, the
size of observed age declines on ProM tasks is directly related to the
degree to which researchers are able to avoid ceiling effects (r 2 > .40,
p < .0001). Furthermore, studies that bias task demands to benefit
older versus younger adults show smaller age effects. In sum, age declines
have been underestimated, due to methodological shortcomings,
including ceiling-limited scores, age confounds, and inappropriate
effect size measures. Finally, a failure to distinguish the
multiple subdomains of ProM contributes to literary confusion and
theoretical quagmire.
4:30–4:45 (111)
Age Invariance in Prospective Memory: Focal Cues and Resource
Allocation. MARK A. MCDANIEL, Washington University, & GILLES
O. EINSTEIN, Furman University—In two experiments, we varied how
focal the prospective memory cue was to the ongoing task. We found
no age differences in prospective memory. Importantly, for focal cues,